High Cheese

Phils GM Ruben Amaro Jr. spoke with reporters for about 15 minutes a couple hours ago. We'll have much more on the Lidge move in the paper tomorrow. For now, though, this quote from the GM should suffice.

In a nut shell: The Phillies felt like Lidge's stuff was not his stuff as old. For a short time period, when he saved games on four straight nights, the stuff was there. But against the Dodgers, it wasn't. The slider that Rafael Furcal hit for a home run was flat. His velocity was down. The Phillies were convinced that the knee was the problem for the inconsistent stuff. They met this morning, made their decision, told Lidge, explained to him their rationale, and now Lidge is at a doctor's appointment in Philly, where the team does not expect anything serious to appear.

"We talked about it today, we had a meeting about it this morning as a group and we just decided that the stuff that was coming out of his hand and the way he was performing was affecting him negatively enough that we felt like it was the mechanics and was his stuff," Amaro said. " Now, I'm sure that not being able to close out games, I'm sure that weighs on a player, especially one as competitive as Brad, but this is strictly a medical move and something to help make sure that he is physically able to perform as we told him. It's important for us to have him from whatever point he comes back to whatever point ends our season, to have him 100 percent. It's already difficult enough to close games in the major leagues with this type of competition and this type of expectaiton when you are a healthy player, and if you're not, youre' going out there at 90 percent or 85 percent, we don't want to put him in that position. And that's essentially what this is about."